Hello everyone, this is the Myrrh Garden.
Since the summer of about 1984, people in the city of San Francisco in the United States have been discovering that their friends, relatives, and even the entire family around them have disappeared for no reason...
Police had no clue about the disappearances until the horrific killing fields (crime scenes and dumping sites) were found in the mountains of California.
Local man Leonard Lake and Chinese man Charles Ng from Hong Kong have been linked to the disappearance and death of as many as 25 people.
1. Hardware store theft case
On June 2, 1985, the South San Francisco Police Department received an alarm call from a hardware store. Police quickly rushed to the scene, and employees said an Asian-American man had stolen a $75 tongs from the store.
When he was spotted, he threw the tongs into the trunk of a brown Honda, and he ran to escape.
(The tongs look like this)
The Honda's trunk had not yet been closed, and the police found that there was indeed a brand new tongs inside, and there was a heavy backpack next to the tongs.
Suspected it was some other stolen property, the police opened it and looked inside, which contained a black gun case. There was a .22-caliber Ruger gun in the box, and it was also fitted with a 6- to 9-inch silencer, which was obviously an illegal modification.
(Credit: The Boneyard: The Horrible Story of Leonard Lake)
Just as the police were scrutinizing the guns, a breathless white man rushed over. He told police that he had driven to shop with his friend, who had taken the tongs and had not paid for it, and that he had just paid for him in the store.
The police asked to see his papers, saying his name was Robin Scott Stapley and handing him his driver's license. But it was too late, and the police decided to seize the Honda and arrest Robin for possessing an illegal weapon.
In the police station's detention cell, Robin told the police that his Asian friend who stole the tongs was named Charles Ng (Wu Zhida, hereinafter referred to as Wu Zhida for easy reading), and that he was not actually Robin, and that his real name was Lenard Lake.
He said he forged his identity because he was a fugitive and now he wanted to write down everything, hoping the police would give him pen and paper and a glass of water.
The police complied with his request and then left the detention room, leaving Lake alone to write his confession quietly. A few minutes later, when the police returned to the detention cell, they found that Lake had fallen to the ground, twisting his body and struggling in pain.
Lake was quickly taken to the hospital, but upon arriving at the hospital, he was immediately declared brain dead by doctors. The autopsy report confirmed that Lake swallowed capsules containing cyanide.
Lake left several last words in the detention cell.
Dear Lynn,
I love you and I forgive you. Freedom is more important than anything else. I'm sorry, Mom, Petty and so on. I'm sorry, (for all the trouble I caused). Love (you) Lake
The police are deeply confused, why did Lake commit suicide? Maybe his good friend Wu Zhida can explain all this. In the name of theft, the police issued an arrest warrant for Wu Zhida.
Meanwhile, South San Francisco police found that the brown Honda seized at the hardware store belonged to a man named Paul Cosner, a Bay Area resident who was reported missing 7 months earlier.
Kosnell once ran an advertisement in the newspaper selling a car (the car), and on the day of his disappearance, he told his girlfriend that someone wanted to buy the car and that he was about to drive the car to meet the possible buyer.
(Kosnell Search Notice)
A few months before the disappearance, in late June 1984, the San Francisco police took over another bizarre disappearance— the collective disappearance of a family of three surnamed Dabbs (including a 16-month-old baby).
(16-month-old boy from the Dabbs family)
There were obvious signs of fighting in their apartments, the baby room was a mess, the medications the wife needed to take every day were not taken away, and the cats were left unattended.
Police concluded that no matter where the Dubs family went, they did not volunteer. A few days before their disappearance, the man of the family had an advertisement in the newspaper for the rental of camera equipment, which had disappeared along with the family.
(Mr. and Mrs. Dabbs)
Police then found an electric gun, several unused bullets, and a bill signed Claralyn Balazs inside the Honda car.
A bullet hole was found in the roof of the car, and the trajectory showed that the bullet was fired from the rear seat of the car. Blood tests were passed, and blood splattered at high speed on the roof of the car showed that the person in the driver's seat had suffered a gunshot wound.
Combined with various evidence, the San Francisco police believe that the owner of the Honda car, Cosnell, may have been shot, and Lake is highly suspected of killing Cosnell.
Soon, San Francisco police took over Lake's case and reopened the investigation into Cosnell's disappearance.
The San Francisco police first found the address of Lake's mother, and when they went to inquire, they were surprised to find that Lake's mother and his ex-wife were actually in the house.
His ex-wife, Caralyn, was the owner of the bill found in Honda's car, and she and Lake had married three years earlier and divorced last year (1984).
in Caralyn
Because she has a "Lynn" in her name, the police believe that the "Lynn" in Lake's last words is Caralyn.
Police asked her why her bill was in Lake's car, and Caralyn explained that although the address on the bill was her property, a wooden house, Lake had been renting it, so the bill was actually Lake's.
Police took a closer look at Lake's rental site, in the midst of an inaccessible mountain wilderness in Cala Vegas County North. Because there was no search warrant for this address, they had to obtain Caralyn's consent to go to the search immediately.
(Cala Vegas County Mountain)
Caralyn said she agreed to go to Lake's cabin with the police, but only had time the next morning.
The police had no choice but to agree. Before leaving, the police solemnly warned Caralyn that she could not go to the wooden house alone until the police searched.
The next morning, San Francisco police and Caralyn met at a post office near the cabin.
Caralynn came with Lake's mother, and as soon as they met, she confessed to the police that the two of them had gone to a cabin last night because Lake was so sloppy that they went to clean up (later changed their words to retrieve the sex video of themselves and Lake).
The police immediately realized that they might have destroyed some evidence, but at this point, they could only hope that the evidence had not been completely destroyed.
2. Yamanokiya
Tucked away in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 150 miles from San Francisco, Lake's cabin is surrounded by trees and off the beaten track, with a locked iron gate leading to the area where the cabin is located.
in Lake Residence)
After arriving at the wooden house, the first thing that attracts everyone is a fortress building made of cement bricks a few steps away from the wooden house, which may be a tool room or something. Caralyn said she didn't have the keys to the tool room and didn't allow the police to search it.
(Cement Fortress)
After entering the wooden house, the police saw a professional-looking camera in the bedroom.
A police detective immediately remembered the disappearance of the Dubs family a year ago, and a few days before the family disappeared, the man published an advertisement in the newspaper for the rental of photographic equipment.
They checked the camera's serial number for verification, and it turned out that the camera was the one that had disappeared along with the Dabbs family.
At this moment, the San Francisco police realized that the case was more serious than they expected, and That Lake was not only suspected of murdering Cosnell, but also the disappearance of the Dabbs family.
With the help of the camera evidence, San Francisco police quickly obtained a search warrant and launched a search of the wooden house and its surrounding area, and the Carawigas County Sheriff's Office joined them.
This time, the police first locked the tool room. When they entered the door, they first saw a wall covered with photographs of 21 young girls, between the ages of 18 and 23, some of which were nude.
In the face of this, the police felt very panicked, who are these girls and where are they now?
At this point, the police realized that they had probably broken into a serial killer's lair, that the girls might have been killed, and that the photos were posted on the wall as booty (with the help of the media, it was confirmed that the girls were still alive).
Meanwhile, police also found one of Lake's notebooks. The notebook was named "The Collector" by Lake.
The Collector is a novel by the contemporary British writer John Fowles published in 1963.
The hero in the work is from a poor background and has no long belongings, and falls in love with Miranda, a girl from art school. An accidental lottery that made him rich overnight, buying a villa, building a dungeon, kidnapping and imprisoning Miranda.
Lake writes that he named his notebook The Collector because he felt that the novel represented the highest ideal of his life: to find a young girl, imprison her, make her a slave, and do whatever he wanted to her.
One chapter in the notebook is titled "The Miranda Project," and below are some action plans for how to imprison a young girl.
On the grass about 100 meters from the small fortress, the police found a number of traces after the fire, and countless bone fragments appeared after excavation. Subsequently, the police dog found a large bone in the nearby soft mud, suspected to be a human bone.
A dilapidated truck was quietly parked near Lake's wooden house. According to the license plate, police found its owner, Lake's neighbor, Lonnie Bond, who lives in another wooden house less than 50 meters from Lake's house with his girlfriend and 18-month-old son.
(Bond)
The police went to knock on the door, and no one responded, and the terrible feeling resurfaced. Sure enough, when the door was opened, there was only a strong smell of food rotting, and the Bond family had disappeared.
Near Lake Chalet, there is also a convertible in good condition. The police soon learned that the car belonged to a man named Robin Scott Stapley, the man Lake had impersonated before, and that he had been missing for a long time.
The police learned from Robin's girlfriend that Robin was a close friend of the Bond family, and Robin often visited Bond's house before he disappeared.
Subsequent forensic reports indicated that the bone fragments in the burning grounds and the large bones found by the police dogs were human skeletons. The police announced that the investigation into the disappearance had been turned a murder investigation.
Three days after Lake's suicide, his cabin and the two acres of land around it were divided into several areas, each of which was thoroughly searched by a task force.
Before long, a team dug out a lot of personal items, buttons, zippers, and even jewelry, from a ditch, for a total of more than two hundred pieces.
(The watch of one of the victims dug up at the scene)
Then there was a surprising discovery in the tool room, which contained a dark room of less than two square meters, a small handmade wooden bed, and a partition on the wall with some toiletries.
A piece of printed paper was taped to the wall with rules written on it.
1. Must always be ready to serve my host ...
2. I am absolutely not allowed to speak unless I am asked to...
3. I must never be disrespectful to my master.........
Police strongly sense that Lake has implemented his "Miranda Plan", in which he imprisoned his "slaves".
(Darkroom)
Then another team dug up two intact bodies wrapped in sleeping bags, already highly bone-destructed.
A forensic comparison of dentist records confirmed that the two were Lake's neighbor Bundy and Bundy's good friend, Robin, the owner of the sports car.
More human skeleton fragments were found one after another, and the final total weight was as high as more than 40 pounds. Police believed that as many as 25 victims were identified, and a total of 17 victims were identified in the end.
More was found outside the house, and they dug out a 5-gallon plastic bucket of sealed paint containing several videotapes. The content of the video is chilling (see below).
The video also features an Asian man who has committed a crime with Lake, who is identified as Ray's friend Wu Zhida, who stole tongs from a hardware store.
The tapes later became the most crucial piece of evidence against Mr. Wu.
San Francisco police found some of Wu's photographic equipment and videotapes at his San Francisco apartment, also from the Dabbs family.
Because of the multiple murders involved, Wu Zhida is also likely to abscond, and the FBI quickly intervened and issued a warrant for Wu Zhida's arrest.
After Wu Zhida's arrest warrant was issued, the police found Lake's ex-wife, Caralyn, and asked about Lake's relationship with Wu Zhida and where Wu Zhida might be hiding.
Caralyn's lawyer and the district attorney reached an agreement that caralyn's crimes in the case would be exempt from prosecution as long as caraline gave testimony. Caralyn said she knew nothing about all the murders. But Mr. Wu had told her he was leaving San Francisco for Chicago.
After confirmation by the San Francisco airport staff, Wu Zhida did fly to Chicago under a pseudonym. Immediately afterward, the FBI launched a comprehensive background check on Both Lake and Wu Zhida.
Three, Lake
Lake was born in 1945 in San Francisco, Northern California, the son of a naval soldier. Lake is the eldest son in the family, and he also has a younger sister and the youngest younger brother. When he was six years old, his father abandoned them and his mother remarried.
Lake and his siblings were raised by their maternal grandparents. According to sources, Lake often takes nude photos of his sister after the age of 10, and it is inconceivable that his grandmother encouraged this behavior.
When he reached adolescence, he began to force his sister to make indecent gestures and began to indulge in yellow magazines.
In 1964, Lake joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating from high school.
During his service, he met his first wife, Karen Lee Meinersaman. According to Karen's recollection, after the marriage, Lake's attitude towards her began to become very domineering, wanting to control everything about her.
Lake served in the military during the Vietnam War, and Lake was twice sent to the Vietnamese battlefield.
During his time in Vietnam, Lake's paranoia grew worse, and after experiencing a "delusional collapse," Lake was diagnosed with "schizophrenia" by military doctors and was "dangerous to himself and to others."
Lake then underwent psychotherapy and retired in 1971.
In 1972, The relationship between Lake and Karen broke down. According to Lake's half-sister, this was the only time she saw Lake cry.
She believes that the divorce elicited Lake's intense hatred of all women, probably starting with his own mother, who saw women as the source of all the hurt and rejection pain in his life.
After the divorce, Lake briefly hooked up with a girl named Jennifer. Jennifer later revealed an important piece of information to the police, Lake had said some of his crazy fantasies, and Jennifer said to him, you will go to jail one day sooner or later.
At that time, Lake triumphantly told her that he would put cyanide in a small hole in his teeth so that the police would never catch him.
For the years that followed, Lake lived a life of odd jobs, living in a famous hippie camp greenfield Ranch near San Jose.
In 1980, Lake befriended a new girlfriend, Caralyn, and to Lake's fascination, his intolerable behaviors that made his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend intolerable made Caralyn "sexually high and very cooperative", and Caralyn even liked others to join their ranks, and Lake felt that they were simply a natural pair.
In 1981, Lake and Caralyn married. During this time, Wu Zhida broke into Lake's life.
(Wedding photo of Lake and Caralyn)
4. Wu Zhida
Wu Zhida, born in Hong Kong on Christmas Eve 1960, is the only boy in the family of three children. His family was well-off and his father was a director of a company.
His father had high hopes for him since he was a child, but the way of discipline was very rough and cold, and beating and abusing was common for the young Wu Zhida.
Wu Zhida was considered a problem teenager after entering puberty. He attended St. Joseph's College, a prominent private school in Hong Kong, in junior high school and was expelled for attempting to set fire to the school's chapel.
At the age of 15, he was arrested by police for stealing in a store. After that, Wu Zhida went to a boarding school in the United Kingdom to attend high school, and was soon expelled for stealing.
In 1978, Wu Zhida obtained a student visa to the United States to study biology at a college in the Bay Area of Northern California, but dropped out after one semester.
In 1979, he forged birth certificates, falsely declared his place of birth in the United States, and successfully enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Wu Zhida was physically strong and very adapted to the life of the army, and was soon promoted to sergeant, and his comrades called him "Bruce Lee".
But his burglary followed him like a devil, and after less than a year of service, he was dismissed from his post and imprisoned for stealing arms. While awaiting a court-martial trial, he managed to escape from prison and fled back to Northern California, hiding in the San Francisco area.
Through a small internal network of retired U.S. Marine Corps soldiers, Wu Zhida went to defect to Lake. The wilderness camp that Lake was in at the time was full of hippies was indeed a good place to escape the hunt. Wu Zhida and Lake saw each other as they were, and they felt sorry for each other.
(A typical hippie camp, not in the text)
In 1982, Lake accidentally caught fire and caused an explosion in a storage room in the camp. The police discovered a large number of illegal guns and explosives in Lake's possession and arrested him.
Wu Zhida was also found and sent to a military court for trial. Wu Zhida served 18 months in prison and maintained frequent correspondence with Lake in prison. In 1984, Wu Zhida was released from prison on parole.
(Wu Zhida's prison photo at this time)
Lake was released on bail shortly after his arrest, but he soon fled on bail and hid in the mountain hut owned by Caralyn.
The first thing Wu Zhida did after he got out of prison was to fly back to San Francisco and defect to Lake. Soon after, the duo began their evil plan.
Fifth, hunt down Wu Zhida
The FBI listed Wu Zhida as one of the top ten most wanted. Some people reported seeing Wu Zhida in the small border town of Chatham riding on a bus bound for Toronto, Canada. Canadian police also quickly issued a warrant for Wu Zhida's arrest.
On July 6, 1985, Wu Zhida appeared at a store in Calgary, Canada, where the store's security guards saw that he had not checked out and put an item in his backpack.
When the security guard stepped forward to check his backpack, Wu Zhida pulled out a gun. During the beating, the security guard was slightly injured, but fortunately Wu Zhida was controlled.
Police in Calgary soon arrived and arrested Mr. Wu on charges of attempted murder, robbery, and illegal possession of a firearm.
(The first from the right is a security guard injured by catching Wu Zhida)
After the news reached the United States, the San Francisco police immediately sent someone to Canada.
Although there are extradition regulations between Canada and the United States, Canada has a prerequisite that a suspect facing a death sentence in another country may not be extradited unless the United States proves at an extradition hearing that the person is suspected in multiple murders.
Prior to the hearing, Wu Zhida was first indicted in Canada on two counts, theft and assault, and Wu Zhida was sentenced to 4 and a half years in prison.
Therefore, the US side can only start the extradition procedure for Wu Zhida to complete the four-and-a-half-year sentence in Canada.
6. Extradition and pre-trial hearings
In 1988, on October 17, the extradition hearing for Wu Zhida finally began, and the United States won. On September 26, 1991, Wu Zhida was put on a plane back to California from Canada, and The Caravigas County prosecutor will indict him for 12 counts of first-degree murder.
Wu began firing his lawyers and complaining about his own bad treatment, demanding better food, shorter commutes (from the place of detention to the courtroom), and successfully delayed the trial for more than a year.
The first round of hearings prior to the trial begins. The main purpose of the hearing was for the prosecution to provide evidence to the court, which would then be decided by the judge as sufficient to prosecute Wu on 12 counts of first-degree murder.
The strongest evidence available to prosecutors was two videotapes found near the wooden house (which will be discussed later), but although they could prove Wu Zhida's guilt, they could not confirm his murder charges.
Prosecutors called on a key witness, Maurice Laberge, a close friend of Mr. Wu's prison days in Canada.
Wu Zhida was very frank and told him a lot of details of the crime, most of which were about how he and Lake tortured and sexually assaulted female victims.
Wu Zhida has a great talent for drawing, and he draws these contents as a "Wu Zhida Crime Series Comics" for Morris.
(One of Wu Zhida's cartoons)
On January 12, 1993, the case went to trial, and the prosecution was confident that the case would end in 1993 at the latest in 1994, but they underestimated Wu Zhida.
Wu Zhida began to use various means to postpone the trial, once again successfully postponing the trial for more than 6 years. During this period, the prosecution's most critical witness, Wu Zhida's close friend in Canadian prison, Morris, died in a car accident while on parole.
In any case, the trial is about to begin. First, prosecutors and prosecutions together selected eight women, four men, and six alternates from more than 2,000 eligible orange county residents to form a jury.
7. Trial
On October 26, 1998, the trial officially began.
Prosecutors first made a presentation, accusing Wu Zhida of committing 12 first-degree murders together with Lake (the number of missing people in this case was eventually confirmed to be 25, and there was evidence that Wu Zhida was involved in 12 missing murders).
| name | Time of disappearance | |
| 1 | Sean Dubs | 1984.6.25 |
| 2 | Deborah Dubs | |
| 3 | Harvey Dubs | |
| 4 | Paul Cosner | 1984.11.2 |
| 5 | Cliff Peranteau | 1985.1.19 |
| 6 | Jeffrey Gerald | 1985.2.24 |
| 7 | Michael Carroll | 1985.4.12 |
| 8 | Kathleen Allen | 1985.4.14 |
| 9 | Lonnie Bond, Sr | 1985.4.18 |
| 10 | Robin Scott Stapley | |
| 11 | Lonnie Bond, Jr | |
| 12 | Brenda O'Connor |
Extrapolating from the contents of two videotapes held by prosecutors and more than 200 personal belongings of the victims, Lake carried out his long-fantasy Miranda plan, working with Wu Zhida to find female victims and abduct, imprison, rape and even kill them.
They killed many men for different purposes, mostly for money and goods and for the sake of silence. Because most of the victims of the disappearances associated with the case could not find their bodies, prosecutors speculated that the bodies of the missing victims had been cremated by Lake and Wu Zhida, based on traces of the ground where the fire had been burned and the 40-pound human skeletons collected.
In court, the prosecution presented three pieces of evidence.
1． 3 videotapes
First, prosecutors played two videotapes found near Lake's wooden house in court.
The woman in the two tapes, one is Kathleen Allen.
Dressed in a red T-shirt, white cardigan and dark pants, Catherine sat on a brown worn-out sofa chair with her hands handcuffed and her back behind her. It was a dimly lit room, and a small lamp emitted a faint light.
Lake's voice rang out from the frame: "Michael (Catherine's boyfriend) owes us a lot and he can't pay it back. You now have a choice, to fully cooperate with us, to do whatever we ask you to do.
If you have any comments, we'll put your head on and take you out and bury you where Michael was buried before us. Actually, you don't have much choice. ”
Catherine sat there stiffly, spitting out a few words with difficulty: "I will... No..."
Lake continued, "If you don't agree, we might tie you to bed, rape you, shoot you, and bury you." Sorry ma'am, the time has come to make your choice. ”
Catherine whispered, "I'll do everything you ask me to do." ”
Lake paused for a moment and said, "Do you have the keys to the handcuffs?" ”
Another man's voice rang out: "Mm-hmm. ”
A man walked into the picture, it was Wu Zhida. He stepped forward and opened Catherine's handcuffs.
Lake said, "Take off your coat, your pants, your underwear." ”
Realizing that it was inevitable, Catherine began to undress.
Wu Zhida's voice rang out: "Then what are we going to do?" ”
Lake: "Take her to the shower first." ”
Wu Zhida asked, "Can I go together?" ”
Lake replied in a pleasant voice, "Oh, you want to take a shower with her, so go for it?" ”
At this point, Catherine took off all her clothes.
Wu Zhida commented: "She is quite cooperative! ”
......
Another woman is Brenda O'Connor.
Brenda, dressed in a long-sleeved white T-shirt and jeans, also sat on the worn-out couch chair, her hands behind her back, handcuffed.
Brenda's voice shattered anxiously: "Bring me my baby." ”
"Your baby is already asleep, sleeping like a rock. He will be sent away, to a couple. Lake's voice rang out.
Brenda began to plead, "Give me my baby back, bring him to me..."
At this time, Wu Zhida appeared in the picture naked, and he said coldly: "It is better for that child to die, right?" Then, Wu Zhida stepped forward and cut Brenda's clothes with a knife.
(Brenda Mother and Son)
2． A variety of personal items
Prosecutors identified the victims based on more than 200 personal items police found in and near the wooden houses and nearby, and found 75 witnesses across the country.
In it, Catherine's sister identified a heart-shaped necklace as an accessory that her sister Catherine (one of the ladies in the video) never left.
Personal belongings of Wu Zhida's colleagues Cliff and Jeffrey were also found in Wu Zhida's apartment. The Dabs family's full set of video equipment was then placed in Two places in Lake's wooden house and Wu Zhida's apartment.
3． Testimony of fellow inmates
The prosecution's last piece of evidence was the transcript of a conversation with Morris, a close friend of Mr. Wu's prison sentence in Canada, and a cartoon handed to him by Mr. Wu.
Although Morris died in a car accident before the trial, he testified about everything related to Wu Zhida at the extradition hearing of Wu Zhida in Canada.
Much of what was mentioned above is about how he tortured and sexually assaulted female victims, but the most crucial content is how Wu Zhida killed a baby and how he tortured and eventually killed two women.
Wu Zhida told Morris how he shot them while they were handcuffed and covered in their heads, then placed their bodies in a pile of wood and finally set them on fire together.
VIII. Judgment Result
On February 24, 1999, the jury reached an agreement. Wu Zhida was convicted of 11 counts of first-degree murder (including the murder of Honda owner Kosnell was dismissed due to insufficient evidence) and sentenced to death.
The prosecution won! But All of Mr. Wu's trials cost $14 million, the most expensive trial in California's history. Preparations for the trial began in January 1993 and continued until the end of the trial in February 1999, the longest trial in California's history.
Wu zhida is currently awaiting execution at California's St. Quentin State Prison, the only prison in California where male death row inmates are held. But california has not carried out a death sentence since 2006, and it seems that Wu Zhida is going to die in prison.
Author: Cowley, Editor: Socks
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author
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The text copyright belongs to Myrrh Gardens and the creators